Distraction
by Meaghan26
Summary: While accompanying a political mission to Alderaan, Darth Vader meets a most unusual young girl. Between RotS and ANH, slightlyAU.


Disclaimer: Don't own it. :( This just popped into my head tonight, late tonight, and now it's almost 3am and I'm uploading it. Huh. Between RotS and ANH. There are a few more paragraphs, set during ANH, but after I wrote it, I was worried that it was too similar to another author's story. I left the part off, but if you'd like to read it, contact me and I'll send it to you somehow. Read this as slightly-AU, because you have to assume that Padme is still alive. Enjoy!

* * *

Darth Vader hated politics. He always had. Politics took too long. Sometimes it would take days for the Imperial Senate just to reach a simple agreement, and that wasn't counting the days preceding making proposals and the days afterwards planning execution of said agreement. Vader preferred a faster, more aggressive kind of negotiation, being a man of war. _The kind with a lightsaber_, he mused. He clenched his fists, forcing himself back to reality before he could get lost in a fantasy world, a world of what once was and what could have been. _No_, he resolved to himself, _I will not allow myself to be distracted_.

However, he knew that doing so would not be so easy. He had not properly prepared for this day. He had resolved to never again come to this planet, among others, and he had for a so long foolishly believed that he could do so. It reminded him too much of his past, too much of _her. Padmé_. He thought the name with a sneer, not the tenderness he usually felt. It was easy to feel the love and tenderness that still lingered within him when he was far away from anything that reminded him of her. Thinking of her now, here, made the pain sharper, more intense. It burned through his body worse than any fire. _Damn Bail Organa and his insistence that we meet on Alderaan!_

Senator Organa had requested they meet on his home planet, rather than Coruscant, as his wife was recovering from a broken leg, but she wanted to be present at the negotiations without the burden of travel. _A simple broken bone as a result from some inane winter sport is nothing compared to how _my_ wife suffered! _Vader growled softly to himself, just quietly enough to avoid vocalization through his mask. _Blast these thoughts! Don't you remember who caused her to suffer so?_ If it wouldn't have raised suspicion in his companions, Vader would have punched the nearest wall to rubble. With one last curse on Bail Organa and Alderaan, Vader drew on the Dark side and shut out all thoughts of his late love.

* * *

After three long hours, the negotiations were at a stalemate. Vader's attempts to speed them along by wielding his deadly power did not phase Organa, which left the dark lord far more frustrated than usual. A break for lunch was proposed. The delegation moved towards the dining room, but Vader hung back. Not only did he know that the politicians would continue to argue their cause through the meal, but he could no longer eat. He always removed himself from the obligatory meal, no matter how important the event. Besides, it also gave him time alone, which he used to strengthen the walls built around his mind by the Dark side. Others were a distraction, and as powerful as he was, he was also still passionate, and the presence of others drew his concentration away from the Force. _In fact_, he realized, _there is one such distraction now…_

He spun around, cape swirling about him. The intruder was but a girl. _How did one so insignificant in the Force distract me? _But, he realized, she was anything but insignificant. Her presence in the Force was undeniable, a cloud of fiery passion, but at her core, a sense of calm. Vader was astounded that such a paradox could exist in one so young! She wasn't even a teenager yet, maybe 11 at the oldest. Vader reached out with the Force, brushed her aura just slightly, not wanting to frighten her. _Since when do I care about frightening someone? _But the question was left unanswered as the young girl's signature utterly bemused Vader. The spit-fire, almost arrogant façade around the girl was defiant, angry. She wasn't afraid of Vader, and she didn't hesitate to show it. But inside, she truly wasn't afraid! She had an incredible sense of trust within her, and he felt that his presence in the Force actually comforted her. _Who is this girl?_ Finally, she spoke.

"Why aren't you at lunch with the rest of them?" There was something in her voice that startled Vader. It was wise beyond her years, the voice of a young woman, not a girl. There was some quality in it that he could not place, something that did not reach his human ears through the helmet. While pondering, he denied her an answer. She narrowed her eyes and put her hands on her hips, dropping her chin from its lofty, regal position.

"Well? What are you doing snooping around out here by yourself? Did you _kill_ everyone else or something?" She moved her arms to cross her chest, still glaring at the dark lord. Vader could still feel her calm core, her repressed desire to act cordially towards him. She puzzled him.

"I am unable to eat," he finally answered.

"You are?" Her arms dropped back to her side, and her angry exterior gave way to the calm and genuine curiosity. "Can't you just take the helmet off?"

"No, I cannot. I need it to live."

"Tell me." _Puzzling indeed._

"I was in an accident. I was wounded. This is the only way I can live." _Why am I telling her this?_

"Oh," she replied simply. It wasn't all the detail that she wanted, but it was enough. "I'm sorry."

That stunned Vader. No one had ever taken pity on him before, sympathized with his injuries. His own curiosity got the best of him. "Who are you, young lady?"

"I am Princess Leia." With this simple answer, he thought his heart would stop. _Leia… the name meant for my daughter! _He never believed he would hear that name ever again. It hurt him. The most intense heartache stalked through his chest. He stepped closer to her, grateful for once that he had mechanical legs, for flesh and bone would have surely collapsed by now. _It can't be… no! Is it? _He examined the girl closer. She had dark eyes and dark hair, but the rest was indiscernible through his red vision. He closed his eyes, relying on the Force to form her face in his mind.

_This time my heart has surely stopped. _She had dark, curly brown hair, just as long, thick, and shiny as his angel's. He squeezed his eyes tighter and moved down her face. Who stared back at him was the last person in the world he expected to see. Her eyes were large and dark brown, her features exuding confidence and compassion. Her skin was much paler and the proportions younger, but the face was undeniably that of a long-dead, much-loved woman. _Mom… _Vader snapped the Force connection, his mother's face disappearing, the girl again appearing before him through his lenses.

"My mother told me not to be afraid of you." She smiled slightly. "She said that you are not a bad man."

"Queen Breha is wrong, child. I am hardly a man at all."

The girl shook her curls. "No, not Breha, my real mother. My birth mother." Before Vader could even wrap his mind around the girl's words, she smiled broadly, and the last piece of the puzzle that was Princess Leia fell into place. _That was _my_ smile…_

"I don't think she's wrong, milord." Leia bowed and spun on her heel, leaving Vader to crumble in his thoughts.

* * *

Oh, and the "inane winter sport" that caused the queen her broken leg? Skiing. :) 


End file.
